Richard Bustillo is a first-generation student of jeet kune do founder Bruce Lee. Inducted into the Black Belt Hall of Fame as the 1989 Co-Instructor of the Year, Bustillo has devoted much of his life to preserving and propagating the teachings of his late master.

A longtime practitioner of boxing, Thai boxing, escrima, kajukenbo, wrestling, jujitsu, tai chi chuan and silat, Bustillo has evolved his own version of the Bruce Lee fighting style and jeet kune do techniques — as well as the other martial arts he has studied in-depth and continues to teach — at his IMB Academy in Torrance, California.

In this exclusive new footage shot at the Black Belt magazine photo studios, Bustillo demonstrates sinawali and how these stick-fighting techniques can translate into empty-hand fighting techniques!

“This is the Filipino art of sinawali — double sticks — which is going to be transposed to empty-hand [techniques],” the legendary stick-fighting master says. “You can defend with sticks and tie it up to end up in a throw. The weapons training is to coordinate the empty-hand [moves]. The weapons is just an extension of the limb.”

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Take your escrima-sticks fighting to a whole new level with this FREE download! Stick Combat: Learn Doce Pares Eskrima’s Most Painful Self-Defense Moves Presas left the Philippines in 1975 on a goodwill tour sponsored by the Philippine government to spread arnis to other countries. He arrived in the United States, conducting special seminars featuring escrima sticks and other fighting methods to groups as diverse as law enforcement agencies and senior citizens. The “Professor” (as his students affectionately called him) was welcomed wherever he went, demonstrating the daring techniques of the bolo and the bewitching twirl of double rattan sticks — the sinawali.